Thankfully, I am at home today and was able to catch Tony Blair's amazing speech to Congress. I tried to write down some of my thoughts as he was speaking and stopped because it got in the way of appreciating it. A few thoughts for those who might have missed it:

-If only W could be so eloquent

-He implored Congress to "never apologize for your values," isn't that the Democratic Party's platform? To apologize for being America?

-"Never has there been a time when the power of America has been so necessary or so misunderstood." A good 30% of the country wants to decapitate American power and completely misunderstand the role of American power in global stability.

-I am paraphrasing; Blair declared that if we back down from fighting the war on Terror and implicitly, Iraq, we will have 'Hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership.' This was a clear shot across the bow of the Democratic Party. They have offered no leadership on the issue of defending the West and liberty and have demanded paralyzing caution and hesitation at every decision point since 9/11.

-Finally someone laid out the democratic vision for the Middle East by warning those who provide succor to the Islamists who seek to destroy the West (Syria and Iran) and asking us to envision a stable, democratic, and prosperous Middle East. Bush should have done this a long time ago and should continue to do it. He needs to make his vision clear so that we can all understand that the war in Iraq, the peace process with Israel and Palestine are part of a broad strategic change in the entire region. Bush's end goal is transforming the region. It goes beyond Israel and Iraq. The problem is that it has not been laid out clearly or frequently enough by Bush.

Blair's speech was simply marvelous, eloquent, morally clear, impassioned, inspiring, with an uncompromised vision. It would be cliché to call it Churchillian, but I'll call it that anyway. When you think about it, it was more pro-American than anything I have heard out of the Democratic Party.

That sound you hear is a giant extinguisher putting out the propaganda pyre that the political arsonists on the left have set aflame.